Not excited about the Wii U? Well you just don’t get it, you dumbass. That’s the stance Nintendo is arrogantly taking on the negative reaction to the company’s newly announced console. And the reaction is negative — Nintendo’s stock dropped 5% on Tuesday after the announcement and another 7% yesterday, hitting lows they haven’t seen in more than five years. The investor reaction is based on more than just their personal reactions to the console announcement — I’m gonna guess gamer response was a factor.

How does Nintendo respond to this turn of events? Here’s Satoru Iwata, speaking with MSNBC:

[This happens] whenever we come out with something brand new and try to do something unprecedented. People have never had this kind of experience before [and] they cannot completely appreciate it.

Well…. OK. So when we see something new we automatically react negatively? Interesting. Make an historical comparison, breh.

It reminds me of the situation in 2006, when for the first time we showed the Wii system. At the show, people were excited and enthused about the prospect of the Wii at the time, but as soon as I returned to Japan, I noted the [reaction] there was much different. There was so much skepticism surrounding Wii at the time.

That’s not really how I remember it, but if you say so…

We are trying to invent some mechanism to better communicate the real value of the Wii U.

What? So the Wii U is so difficult for our lesser minds to comprehend that Nintendo is going to have to craft some new method of communication in order to explain it to us? I cannot possibly be reading this right.

I don’t even really have a response to this, either because my brain is too fried from E3 or because these comments are just that strange. Probably a little of both. Sheesh.

To be completely fair, though, I do believe it’s entirely possible most of us don’t really understand the full potential of the Wii U, but if thats the case it’s the result of Nintendo’s utter inability to explain it well. Or maybe we do get it, and we think it’s silly. I’ll say this: If we don’t “get” it now, we probably never will.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/nintendo-stock-continues-to-fall-iwata-says-you-dont-get-the-wii-u/feed/3Killer Freaks From Outer Space — Not As Terrible As It Sounds (Trailer)http://www.gamefront.com/killer-freaks-from-outer-space-not-as-terrible-as-it-sounds-trailer/
http://www.gamefront.com/killer-freaks-from-outer-space-not-as-terrible-as-it-sounds-trailer/#commentsThu, 09 Jun 2011 18:53:54 +0000CJ Miozzihttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=104355Unfortunately, it's being designed exclusively for the Wii U.

Ubisoft announced its new title being deve exclusively for the Nintendo Wii U, Killer Freaks from Outer Space. Slated to launch alongside Nintendo’s new console, the game is a first person shooter that equips players with an arsenal of vicious weapons and one objective: slaughter those killer freaks in the most gruesome ways imaginable.

Watch the trailer:

I must admit, when I read the title “Killer Freaks From Outer Space,” I was expecting to see something much more… terrible. I was pleasantly surprised — this looks like it could be good. The “Quick change of underpants” line was classic. It’s a game that doesn’t take itself seriously, with a dash of “Shaun of the Dead” horror comedy.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/killer-freaks-from-outer-space-not-as-terrible-as-it-sounds-trailer/feed/0Report: Wii U Won’t Play GameCube Gameshttp://www.gamefront.com/report-wii-u-wont-play-gamecube-games/
http://www.gamefront.com/report-wii-u-wont-play-gamecube-games/#commentsThu, 09 Jun 2011 02:50:21 +0000Phil Owenhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=104187Pour one out for the death of-- oh, I still have a GameCube.

Pour one out for the GameCube. Kotaku says Nintode bigwig Reggie Fils-Aime told them today that while the Wii U will play Wii games, of course, it will not be backward compatible all the way back to the GameCube. So hold on to your GCs and Wiis if you wanna keep on rockin’ Super Mash Bros. Melee, because you know you’re just gonna bitch about whatever the Wii U version of Smash Bros. is just like you do Brawl.

Nintendo shares in the Japanese markets took a significant hit yesterday after the announcement of the Wii U, falling 5.7% in a single day to 16,930 yen, according to Bloomberg. This is the second time Nintendo stock has taken a big hit this year after they took a plunge after March’s major earthquake in Japan.

So what’s up with this? I thought I was mostly alone in my complete and utter ennui toward the Wii U yesterday, but that seems to not be the case. I think I assumed after the insane success of the Wii Nintendo could get people to be enthusiastic about just about anything, but maybe that assumption was wrong. Maybe the Wii U with its weird controller is just a bit too much for us to be able to get on board with. Or maybe Nintendo just did a hell of a bad job explaining it yesterday.

Earlier today Nintendo revealed that we can expect Tekken and a whole bunch of other hardcore franchises to show up on the new Wii U, but that’s not all for Tekken and Nintendo platforms. NAMCO also revealed today that in addition to the Wii U Tekken title, they’re also developing a Tekken for the 3DS. Whichever of these titles hits first will be the first Tekken on a Nintendo platform since Tekken Advance for the GBA.

NAMCO isn’t even hinting at when Tekken 3DS might be released, so don’t expect anything any time soon.

No word on if the new Tekken movie (pictured) ties in with hahahaha flying pandas.

So there’s a reason it’s still using the Wii name, and it isn’t just for marketing purposes; the Wii U will, in addition to that wacky mega-controller, will make use of the same Wiimote and nunchuck you’ve been using for years. It can play Wii games, too. And it’ll be in HD. That there up above is a picture of it. OK, so we don’t really know much at all about this thing. God, Nintendo, you can make cool new things sometimes, but you sure are bad at, you know, telling us about them. When or if I get an actual spec sheet, I’ll post it. Ugh. Here are some images:

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/your-wii-u-details/feed/2Wii U Going Hardcorehttp://www.gamefront.com/wii-u-going-hardcore/
http://www.gamefront.com/wii-u-going-hardcore/#commentsTue, 07 Jun 2011 17:36:21 +0000Phil Owenhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=103579Because we need a new platform to play games we already play on other platforms.

Reggie Fils-Aime made a big deal about how the Wii U will totally play badass new games like Battlefield 3. Here are games they mentioned as planned for release on the new platform:

Metro: Last Light

Darksiders II

Dirt

Tekken

Ninja Gaiden 3

Batman: Arkham City

Ghost Recon Online

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Aliens: Colonial Marines

Cool? I have a hard time caring about this particular part of the Wii U announcement, and not just because a few of those games will have been out for months bythe time Nintendo’s new console even comes out. My real reservation: the people who want to play these games already can on as many as three other platforms. Why do we need a fourth?

This part of the announcement makes it feel like Nintendo is for the first time introducing a true current-generation console, and that’s kinda awkward. It’s too late to make any real headway into the current-generation hardcore market. Maybe if Reggie had said something about how these versions of the games would be higher res or something… but he didn’t.

There it is. It’s got a 6.2″ touchscreen that streams images from the console, which means it’s not a true portable device. It can interact with the images on the TV or act as a replacement for the TV when you want to play while watching something else on TV. It’s also got a front-facing camera, microphone and speakers for video chat. It has an accelerometer and gyroscope. The picture, I think, says everything else there is to say about it. Yikes.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/new-nintendo-console-is-wii-u/feed/1Huge New Details About Project Cafe For E3 2011http://www.gamefront.com/huge-new-details-about-project-cafe-for-e3-2011/
http://www.gamefront.com/huge-new-details-about-project-cafe-for-e3-2011/#commentsFri, 03 Jun 2011 23:31:34 +0000Ross Lincolnhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=102892Looks like Nintendo is going to party like it's 1999.

As relayed by Gamespot, the Nikkei news service has reported on some extremely interesting details about Nintendo’s upcoming new console, currently code-named ‘Project Cafe’. The controller will include a touch screen interface (6 inch screen!) on the center, allowing the ability to play games as one would on iPhone/Android or tablet. But it gets better. The new controller can also be used as a “portable game device”, which means presumably it can function independent of the console itself.

Reports are also emerging that the console will include a camera allowing players to “to create characters based on pictures they snap.” Of course, the 3DS already does this, allowing players to create 3D Miis using the 3D camera. What this means is unclear. Is this a signal from Nintendo that the controller will be compatible with DS games? Will the touch screen support 3D? Or will it be available only for games specific to the new console. We’ll obviously be doing everything we can to answer these questions next week during E3 2011.

In the meantime, if this sounds familiar, it’s because Sega already tried something similar in 1999 with the Dreamcast console. That controller also featured an interactive screen (not touch), and could function independently as a portable gaming system.

]]>Mass Effect 3; Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception; Gears of War 3. There’s a lot of 3s coming out in the next 9 months, and that’s appropriate since E3 2011 is nearly upon us and they’ll all be heavily featured at the annual conference. But it’s not just the sequels and threequels, it’s *nearly* every game developer showcasing their huge slate of upcoming games. That’s so many games even we’re having trouble keeping track of them all. Luckily, we’re pros, so when we found ourselves getting confused, instead of throwing up our hands and whining about it, we put together this handy graphic to keep track of the whole thing, GameFront’s Guide to E3 2011.

It’s super huge, so click the preview below to see the whole thing, and be sure to check in with GameFront all next week for our wall-to-wall coverage of E3 2011.

With the introduction of motion controls on 360 and PS3, all that makes the Wii unique, aside from first-party Nintendo games, is slipping away. Also, that stupid thing doesn’t output in HD. We’ve heard speculation that Nintendo is ready to start rolling out the red carpet for a new console at E3 this year, and now Game Informer has “multiple sources” who say they will, in fact, announce a new console at this year’s E3. The purported console will be HD, naturally, and the sources are conflicted over whether or not it will be as powerful as the 360 or PS3. Here’s a quote from one source: “[It's] not a gimmick like the Wii.”

That is 100% of the information coming from the GI sources. Don’t be impatient: E3 is less than two months away, so we’ll find out soon enough exactly what’s going on. And we’ll probably have a pretty good idea before that, even, as more insiders hype it up.